"I was visiting my parents when the news first reported a lockdown. Excited by what I saw as an extended holiday, I wrote a note at the kitchen table: 'Universities are closed, perhaps we will stay a few more days.' I was so full of energy that I did not finish the sentence; the note ended with 'might stay a fe—'. The joy did not last long."
 
On New Year's Eve 2020, Valentin Goppel began photographing friends and acquaintances in an attempt to process and represent the disorientation he felt during Covid. Photographing his friends gave him a way to deal with uncertainty. It was not difficult to explain the images he was seeking: they were all in the same situation and felt connected in a state of limbo.
 
 
 
The title Zwischen den Jahren describes the time between Christmas and New Year, the time between years. It acts as a metaphor for the transition between childhood and adulthood, as well as the sense of suspended time or paralysis between life before the Covid pandemic and an unknown future.
 
"I tried to find ways of expressing the hazy feelings of growing up in the 'corona era'. Not knowing what to hold on to when everything shakes around you may be natural at a time of life when you are no longer a child but not yet an adult. The pandemic catalysed my disorientation, exposing internal conflicts that had been well contained by the right environment and sufficient distraction. They finally broke free and occupied the space they had always silently demanded."
 
 
 
The photographs combine observed and staged moments with recreated memories. The young people depicted are often illuminated by the light of a phone or laptop, appearing in small groups or alone in kitchens, bedrooms, city streets or natural settings compatible with Covid restrictions. When family groups appear, often around dining tables, the images reflect silence and shared tension between generations. As the book progresses, the sense of isolation increases; even those in groups often seem alone in contemplation. There is just one crowd scene, incongruous and jarring against the isolation that had become normal.
 
 
 
"Before the pandemic, one in ten German adolescents showed symptoms of depression. By the end of the first lockdown, it was one in four. Many of my friends struggled to reconnect with their social lives after lockdown, and I was no different. I have yet to return to university. The message I wrote to my parents at the start of the pandemic was preserved in a frame as a document of the time. For months it sat in a moving box in my new shared flat.
 
 
 
It took me some time to be able to unpack."